BRIDGES OVER TROUBLED WATERS

About

Humans have a very strange relationship with the Earth we live on, and our interaction with water is even more complex. We have not taken good care of our global well. Rivers, oceans and waves have been shamefully used and abused for defensive, exploratory and economic reasons. More than 1.1 billion people today have no access to a clean source of drinking water, about 2.6 billion people lack simple sanitation while the rest clutch to expensive bottled brands of a common good that should be as free as the air we breathe.

This 5th CROSSTALKS book presents a series of great academic and corporate projects that address the challenges associated with water governance and environmental issues, intertwined with contributions by world-class artists who give us a language to discuss these challenges in a metaphorical yet often crystal clear way.

The final chapter validates our bottom-up approach and presents the specific situation of the Zenne valley and the City of Brussels as a perfect test case for urban development all over the world in which water and rivers again play a major role, and where there are many gaps to be bridged between regional policymakers, decision takers, developers, architects and citizens.